TIP: If you find a mistake in the database, use the correction form. There is a link at the bottom that reads
"Spot an error? Please suggest your correction..." Avoid posting corrections in the kibitzing area.

Pawn Promotions: "You sit at the board and suddenly your breast leaps. Your hand trembles to pick up the piece and move it. But what chess teaches you is that you must sit there calmly and think about whether it's really a good idea and whether there are other, better ideas."
Stanley Kubrick
Newsweek, May 26, 1980

chessgames.com: Robert Bownas Wormald was a 19th century chess player and author, so I doubt "Wormald Attack" is a typographical mistake, but it conceivably could be a misclassification. Eric Schiller may be able to clarify, but until we learn otherwise we'll assume the data are correct.

gauer: Hooper & Whyld, "Oxford Companion to Chess", 2nd ed. give only the line ending 6 Qe2 as the Worrall. 5 Qe2 is the Wormald. Following along a bit, 5 ... b5 6 Bb3 Qe7 7 c3 d6 8 d4 in the latter leads to the branch with: 8 ... Bg4 starts the Grunfeld variation, the only sub-line that they give in the appendix.

Phony Benoni: I've been pondering the difference between the Wormald Attack <1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.Qe2> and the Worrall Attack <1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.0-0 Be7 6.Qe2>. One possibility is that Black can play a ...Bc5 line more readily in the Wormald, as White's usual counter of c3 and d4 is harder to enforce with the queen on e2. In the Worrall, this doesn't apply since Black has already developed the bishop to e7.

kingfu: I would say that Arthur Clarke and Stanley Kubrick played chess during 2001. Malcolm McDowell and Kubrick played a lot on the set of "A Clockwork Orange". On later versions of the DVD there is an interview about the experienced with the movie and Kubrick by McDowell.

A sad note: I did tech support at DirecTV for about a decade. We had a staff meeting on the day that AC Clarke passed. I have seen the original "document" where Clarke shows his idea of having satellites in a geostationary orbit for telecom applications. It was on a cocktail napkin! Now that technology is commonplace. I mentioned these facts as relating to the folks at DTV having a nice living.

pescau: <takchess: Was there a game in the original Arthur C Clarke's book?>

I read the book many years ago, and I don't remember whether there was a chess game in it.

But I think that this novel (2001: A Space Odyssey) is one of the very few cases (I'm not aware of any other) where the book was written <after> the film. I think Clarke said he reckoned that many (mainly philosophical) points were insufficiently clear in the film.

GumboGambit: I recently read the book, and it was mentioned in the foreward Clarke and Kubrick worked in conjunction. So both movie and book were developed at the same time. Quite a rarity. I would recommend all fans of the film to read the book because it explains a lot that isnt clear in the film.

The chess match is not in the book. Not surprising that Kubrick put it in the film as he was a chess enthusiast. I will say the pun is a bit misleading as HAL played Frank Poole, not Dave. Perhaps a more fitting pun/reference would be something along the lines of "Human Error".

Ke2: <Grumbo> It is mentioned in the book. Something like "Hal was programmed to lose 50% of the time to make it interesting."

By the way, it is mate in 3, which is totally accurate. White can play Qc8, Qe6, or Qh6, the queen is taken, then h3 or h2, then Black plays Nh3 followed by Ng4 and you have a diamond of pieces giving mate.

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